Ciao, Tuscany! Here We Come!

Friday afternoon after weeks of waiting, a long weekend began and so did a culinary journey I won't soon forget. (...because I will be reminded when I look into the mirror!) Everyone said that we were crazy to drive down to Italy on a Friday evening of a holiday weekend, but you know what? Clear roads out of Luzern, a break through the Gotthard Tunnel and express into Milan for the evening. From Luzern to Tuscany is approximately 6h direct so we decided to make a pit stop in Milan for the evening get some good rest and start fresh full on in the morning.

Once we managed to find the entrance to this poorly signed hotel, we checked in and headed to this cozy little locals restaurant for some highly talked about pizza. I know, you think, Italy, pizza, how obvious. But no. This was not just pizza, it was perfect (for me). Some of the other taste testers believed theirs was too hard, or too thick, but my porcini mushroom pizza was perfecto! We managed to get through our pizzas but none of us could finish after already starting with a plate of grilled cheese and veggies. However, all rubbing our bellies and perfectly happy, then manage to find room for dessert...as you do when out dining with locals in an Italian restaurant. We went for the marscipone with coffee cake volcano of rich flavorful explosion of goodness. Ughhhh. Coma.

Wake up the next morning and set out for our 3.5 hour drive to Tuscany. Not having had quite enough sleep I manage to pass out for a good two hours of it but wake up to bliss. Italian countryside is gorgeous and green and unfortunately that day slightly overcast. But as we said, the food and wine still shine without the sun. We met up with our friend' brother and girlfriend whom both speak little to no English and us who speak little to no Italian and head out for some flavors of de Mare.

It's always nice to know where your food comes from and this gorgeous lunch setting was no exception, as we were literally on the water. This restaurant has been run within the same family for three generations now and is serving up the finest freshest ingredients right out of the water. We opted to share a lightly battered fried plate of octopus, crayfish and shrimp as well as a raw plate of oysters, squid, shrimp and prawns. Unbelievable. There was one little fish pictured below that was rather interesting however. It is not uncommon to eat every part of every animal in Italy, and if you know me you know that I don't eat anything with eyeballs. I took this as a challenge and down the hatch....not my cup of tea but the prosecco helped get it down...

We finished our slow sea salty meal with a liquid desert consisting of lemon sorbet vodka called a sgroppino. If you come to Italy, you need to try one and even if you don't, make one, it is light fresh and fabulous!

We walked off our lunch and then headed off to the local village of San Miniato. On our way we had to stop at a little farm stand to sample some cherries and then get a sneak peak behind the butcher counter to sample some Tuscan prosciutto. I didn't have my phone with me but the cured pig legs hanging all over the place was quite a sight.

More food and no sign of slowing down, but this is going to have to be bubbled in increments....